


Set Us Spinning

by norgbelulah



Category: Fringe
Genre: Insomnia, Multi, Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-29
Updated: 2011-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-28 09:36:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/306484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/norgbelulah/pseuds/norgbelulah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With all three of them, it feels a lot less like power games and a lot more like a team effort.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Set Us Spinning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kerithwyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kerithwyn/gifts).



> Written for the Fringe Secret Santa exchange. Thanks to kel, who stepped up to beta.
> 
> Set after all aired episodes.

After the first 3 AM date begins and ends with Olivia falling asleep on her couch and calling him frantically two hours later (yes, he was still awake) to apologize, they start meeting at each other’s places and walking to the all-night diner together.

Olivia says she doesn’t need much sleep, just naturally, and he can’t decide if it’s the truth or a serious form of denial about her insomnia. But he likes the company at the diner. They do paperwork together, or get some reading done, or just chat over their decaffeinated tea. He learns more about Olivia in the one week they do this than in the all four weeks he’s worked for Fringe Division combined.

Things change, as they inevitably do, the night she has a glass of whiskey in her hands when she opens her door. She asks if he wants to stay in tonight, she says she has a headache again. He smiles, understanding, and he drinks with her.

It’s a surprise to him when they fall in bed together, but apparently not to her. She says she liked seducing him. She says she thinks she gets a thing for her partners. She assumed it was a one-off deal with John, the partner that died, but now she’s wondering if it’s a thing.

He tells her that early on he had a similar thing going with Robert, until his partner got married, and he’s okay with a thing with her too, more than okay. They smile and fuck again, but they don’t sleep.

It’s just that Lincoln can’t shut his brain off. It wears on hims and he’s sure Olivia notices it. He knows he looks tired, sees it in the mirror in the mornings, and sometimes at the end of the day he’ll catch her watching him with tight lips. He hasn’t slipped up, made any glaring mistakes yet, but he knows the longer this goes on, that it’s just a matter of time.

He wonders if he could have hidden it better if they hadn’t started this thing between them, but he doesn’t regret his decision. He’s closer to her than he was before, much closer, and it makes him feel like he’s really her partner, like he’s really becoming a part of Fringe. He knows she’s going to do something eventually, but he’s having a hard time predicting exactly what.

The last thing he expects Olivia to do is bring Astrid in on the problem.

 

She corners him in the hallway, outside of Walter’s unoccupied room. He can tell something is up by the way she’s looking at him, like he’s a puzzle that needs to be solved.

“Olivia says you’re not sleeping,” she begins without preamble. “I have something that might be able to help.”

“Really?” he says, genuinely surprised. “What is it?”

“Just a sleep aid my therapist prescribed a while back. I haven’t needed it in a while,” she replies. “I don’t have any with me though, can I drop it off at your place later?”

Lincoln hesitates, saying, “I live in a hotel in... not a great neighborhood. Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

Astrid puts her hands on her hips, like she’s just daring him to say she can’t handle a rough neighborhood. “Not if you want to sleep tonight.”

“What is it?” Lincoln asks skeptically. “Are you so sure it’s going to work? I’ve tried some over the counter stuff already.”

“Hey,” Olivia interjects approaching them from the lab and looking like she’s heard most of what they’ve said, “Lincoln and I have been meeting to go to this all-night diner together recently. We planned to go tonight, so you can drop whatever it is at my place, okay? We’ll see if it works out and if it doesn’t we’ll bum around the diner for a while. You can come too, Astrid, if you want.”

Lincoln gives her a significant look and asks slowly, “You’re okay with me hypothetically crashing at your place?” He’s not sure how she feels about letting other people in on what’s been going on between them. He’s not sure how he feels about it either.

“Sure, why not?” she answers naturally. “It’s not like I want my partner sleep deprived,” she says this with that teasing tone that makes her voice sound a little lower, a little scratchy, really sexy. “Astrid, does that sound good?”

Astrid glances between them, rather suspiciously, and then nods. “Yeah, that’s perfect.”

 

“The important thing to remember when you take this,” Astrid says several hours later, standing in Olivia’s entry way, holding out the little white pill she’s already told him is an ambien, “is you should really get to bed, like _immediately_.”

Lincoln looks down at the little pill. “Or what?”

Astrid’s expression is a little uncertain as she replies, “Nothing too terrible. My doctor just told me a few stories about people sleepwalking, or doing things they normally wouldn’t do, then waking up and not remembering. There’s kind of a whole website about people’s ambien adventures, look it up later if you want to. But, I always paid attention to the directions, so I never really had a problem.”

“Well,” Lincoln says, looking at Olivia sort of helplessly. “Where do you want me?”

“Oh, my bed’s fine,” she answers and Lincoln knows his mouth has fallen open. She smiles and walks past him to her kitchen, where she begins filling a glass of water. “It’s really fine. My sister took the guest bed with her when she moved out, and I haven’t had the time to go get a new one. I don’t think the couch is going to be comfortable enough for you. It’s not very big and there’s a lumpy spring right in the middle.” She’s smiling like she’d planned it this way.

Lincoln frowns and glances over at Astrid, who shrugs. “I really didn’t mean to put you out like this,” he says, turning back to Olivia, trying not to put too much of his discomfort in his tone. “I can just take it over at my place.”

“No way,” Astrid interjects. “I want to make sure it works. I don’t trust you not to lie about it and you _need_ to sleep, Lincoln.”

He looks between them both and considers if this is some sort of weird conspiracy against him. Does Astrid already know about Olivia and him? Then he looks at the little pill and thinks about how badly he wants to get some rest, for real. The weeks of nights spent with his mind racing, muscles twitching and nervy, going over and over again all the crazy cases, Peter, Robert.

He takes the pill from Astrid’s hand, kicks it back dry, and then snatches the glass of water from Olivia. He takes a few gulps and walks over to set that glass on the counter. He fixes her with a stubborn look and says, “You’d better actually be okay with this.”

“It’s fine,” she says smiling. “It will be fine.”

“Lincoln,” Astrid admonishes, “you have to get to bed, _now_.”

He lets himself be pushed by Astrid through the wide french doors and into the next room, Olivia’s room. She pulls off his coat and they get sort of tangled in arms and sleeves. When Lincoln turns around to face her, unable to hide his annoyance, he sees that Olivia’s followed them.

“The closet is next to the washer and dryer,” Olivia tells Astrid. “Can you go hang that up? I’ll deal with this.”

She begins to pull at his tie and he grabs at her hands. “She’s going to come back in,” he says glancing at the door. “Are you going to tell her? I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that.”

“Astrid is discreet,” Olivia says patiently, pulling down his hands and loosening, then removing his tie. “I’ve worked with her for a long time. She’s perceptive. If she didn’t know before she got here, she will figure it out before she leaves. If you were so concerned about it, you should have thought things through before you took that pill.”

Lincoln breathes a laugh that turns rapidly into a sigh of defeat. “I hope I won’t be sorry I did.”

She smiles up at him and, having laid his tie on the bed, begins to work on his buttons. “You won’t be. Trust us.”

“I do,” he says without thinking, and realizes it’s true. He blinks slowly and wonders if that little pill has loosened his tongue already. “And I can get those myself.”

“You want me to start on your belt?” she asks in a low voice, her smile wicked and real.

“Well, this is enlightening,” Astrid says from the doorway, humor in her tone.

Lincoln looks up and feels his cheeks burn red.

Astrid just smiles at him and walks over to sit on the bed. “I figured something was going on, but I didn’t want to say anything.”

“I told you,” Olivia says, smug as hell, and pulls Lincoln’s shirt off, leaving only his white undershirt. His hands have become pretty useless since being confronted with Astrid.

He looks down at her and feels his brow furrow.

“I won’t tell anyone,” she says sweetly. “I think it’s nice. So don’t look so worried.”

He looks back at Olivia and she smiles, raising her hand to wrap around the back of his neck. His bones and joints feel weirdly pliable, relaxed he supposes, and she pulls his head down easily, pressing her lips to his forehead. “I told you,” she says again.

He leans into her touch and hums some kind of grudging agreement before she carefully removes his glasses and then unceremoniously pushes him down onto the bed.

“It’s kicking in, isn’t it?” Astrid asks, now next to him, though he has to look up to meet her eyes.

Lincoln thinks about it. He’s not sleepy, but he is relaxed, and it’s not a drunken relaxation, it’s more fluid, somehow more natural. “I guess so. Do you think it’s weird I’m sleeping with Olivia? Because I was thinking it might be a little bit weird. But I guess that didn’t really stop me, huh?”

Astrid laughs, and lays back on the bed too. She must have taken off her own coat when she hung up his, he realizes. She’s wearing a deep red sweater with a deep v-neck. He’s trying not to be obvious about enjoying the view. She turns her head to meet his eyes and hers are playful as she answers, “It’s a high stress job, Lincoln. And with her track record, I don’t think it’s weird at all.”

“You make it seem like I’m one in a long line,” he hopes he is not pouting, but his lips seem to be beyond the control of his brain.

Olivia is taking off his shoes and he’s not sure why he no longer feels embarrassed about being undressed in front of Astrid. It’s not like he can’t do it. He hasn’t lost his motor control, he’s pretty sure. It just seems so much more nice having Olivia do it. So, he talks to Astrid and let’s Olivia do what she wants. “There hasn’t been another one she didn’t tell me about, has there?”

Astrid seems to find his question very amusing, maybe it’s the curious tone in his voice. “Well, I wouldn’t know about any other lovers, but there definitely haven’t been any other partners.”

Olivia’s fingers begin to work at Lincoln’s belt, and she leans over him, glancing sidelong at her assistant. “We actually entertained the idea a few years back. As Astrid said, it’s a high stress job. There’s not a lot of people who would understand.”

Lincoln’s eyebrows rise. “But?”

Astrid’s eyes seem big and luminous in the solitary light from Olivia’s bedside lamp. “I decided I didn’t want to be _that_ girl.”

“Which girl?”

“The one who sleeps with her boss,” she answers with a regretful smile. “Partners are a little different.” She twists her body so she’s on her side, now facing him, and she props up her elbow, sliding her hand behind her head and suddenly Lincoln can’t take his eyes off her.

“Would it be weird if I told you I think you’re beautiful?” he says, because she is.

Her lips quirk, and he can tell she’s trying not to laugh at him.

“You are,” he insists and twists on the bed, leaning towards her, catching her lips with his. She’s not expecting it, and he hears Olivia make a funny little sound either of surprise or mirth, as Astrid first stiffens, then accepts his kiss.

He tries to make it slow and nice and he really likes the feel of her mouth, soft and warm against his. He groans when Olivia takes the opportunity to pull off his pants. He hears them fall to the floor and feels her settle on the bed, on his other side.

He pulls away from Astrid and looks up to find Olivia leaning over him, her waist and legs pressed against his side, her hair spilling loose across her shoulders. She’s stripped down to a tank top and just her underwear and he has no idea when that happened.

“You’re getting distracted,” Olivia says. “You’re supposed to be falling asleep.”

Lincoln finds himself smirking wickedly. “How can I do that now?”

Astrid sits up as well and pulls her sweater over her head. She smiles when his eyes get big and she tell him, “If I’m going to stay to see if it works, we might as well all stay in the same place.” She wriggles out of her jeans, kicks them off her feet and onto the floor with his.

Together, Astrid and Olivia pull him further up onto the bed, but when he reaches for Astrid again she catches his hand and shakes her head at him. “Not tonight,” she says, anticipation in her voice.

“Why not?” he frowns, letting her push him back against the pillows.

Olivia raises her eyebrows, but speaks patiently when she answers, “Because tonight is about you sleeping, not about anything else. And, we’re going to wait until that pill wears off, so you can really think about it.” She pulls the covers up around all three of them and Astrid’s arm is across his chest, lightly pressing, keeping him lying back.

Lincoln’s frown deepens. “I am thinking about it.” But they just shake their heads again and smile softly, like he’s the one being unreasonable.

Olivia reaches up, runs her long fingers through his hair, slides them soothingly across his scalp, twists the strands gently, and he lets out an involuntary sigh. His muscles have liquefied, his bones are gelatin, but then his mind skips over to things that science can actually do to his muscles and bones and he stiffens.

“Close your eyes, Lincoln,” Olivia says softly. “Stop thinking.” She stretches herself out next to him, down the length of his body, and he feels Astrid do the same on his other side.

“No,” Astrid murmurs into his ear. “What you’re going to do is stop thinking about whatever just snagged you like that. You’re only going to think about being relaxed, about being in a safe place, about being home.”

Olivia presses her lips to his shoulder, skin to skin, her breath comes in short, quiet bursts, even, rhythmic, drifting across him. He settles further, sinks down, into the bed, a place that’s now become quite comfortable, safe even.

He murmurs something, he’s not even sure what, and he feels Olivia’s smile against his arm. He turns his head and breathes in the scent of her hair, loving that she is right there, next to him. Her hand is still carding through his hair, while the fingers of her other hand have slipped through his, lacing together, and her thumb is rubbing slow circles across his fingers and knuckles.

“Yeah, that’s just fine,” Astrid says. “Here is fine, Lincoln.” Her hand is resting, comforting, on his stomach, close to his hip. “Now, go to sleep.”

Lincoln thinks vaguely that maybe he fell a long time ago, that falling asleep wasn’t something he could do when there was nothing there to keep him tethered, nothing to bring him back. But this is different. This feels more like floating up and not away and Olivia’s still holding his hand.

He feels like he’s drifting in the sea.

And the sea isn’t a shroud, black and vast and cold, it’s warm and soft and it slips over him like a blanket.

 

Olivia hears Lincoln slipping fast into slumber as she presses her lips to his shoulder.

Something warm fills her up when Lincoln asks, “What about here?” And Astrid tells him yes, here is fine. Olivia looks up, smiling to his skin, and sees his eyes are closed. She wonders if he even knew he’d spoken.

She and John rarely spent time in her place, they went to his place or to hotel rooms, and when the alternate her spent those months living Olivia’s life, it took what seemed like an eternity to make this place feel like home, _her_ home again.

She loves that Lincoln can think of it as safe. It seems like a step in the right direction and she knows she hasn’t been taking many of those lately.

Olivia presses her lips, her forehead to Lincoln, relishing his warmth, his nearness. She wonders for a moment if all this is a bad idea, then she looks over at Astrid, who seems captivated by Lincoln’s sleeping form.

A while back, when Olivia had first been entertaining the idea of Astrid, they’d let it lie, justifiably worried about the imbalance of power between them. Astrid was her assistant after all, and relationships like that were risky. But with all three of them, it feels a lot less like power games and a lot more like a team effort.

Olivia smiles at the thought and catches Astrid’s eye.

 

Astrid thinks this is something they can do. She really does.

They all can do it in a way that she and Olivia couldn’t before. She smiles at her boss over Lincoln and Olivia smiles tentatively back.

“This will be good, I think,” Olivia says. “He and I, I like it. But, he needs something else, someone else to talk to. The things that bother people about this job... they don’t bother me so much. I don’t know why, maybe there’s something wrong, something broken in me. I’m frightened by the job, I’m awed by it. But it doesn’t disturb me. It doesn’t make me lose any sleep.”

Astrid tilts her head. “But you’re still not sleeping.”

Olivia shrugs. “I just don’t sleep that much. Haven’t since I was a kid.”

“Maybe we can do something about that, too,” she replies. “While we’re working on Lincoln.”

They both look at him and share a fond expression as he shifts on the bed, curling himself around where his and Olivia’s hands are still clasped.

Astrid makes herself the big spoon to his little one, resting her arms crossed one over the other on his curved shoulder. She considers Olivia and the other woman meets her gaze fearlessly.

Astrid has always loved Olivia’s quiet strength, but lately she’s seen it growing frayed and brittle, as she worries over everything and everyone except herself.

“I’m glad this happened,” Astrid says then glances down at Lincoln. “Do you think he’ll be as receptive to this tomorrow as he was tonight?”

Olivia smiles, it’s a grin of pleasant uncertainty, “You know, I’m really not sure. He’s not always what you expect.”

Astrid thinks that’s par for the course in Fringe Division.


End file.
